A Piece of Cake
by LadyLilyMalfoy
Summary: Based on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, written for my university course


A/N: A short story written for my university course, based on 'Goldillocks and the Three Bears'

* * *

**A Piece of Cake**

I had known that she would not be easy to find.

She was the kind of girl who was impossible to track if she did not wish to be caught. Luckily for me, she was not wishing too hard.

I went alone and asked no one's advice, not wanting to risk spooking her in any way; I knew that I would find her eventually if she allowed me to, if I gave her no reason to be more afraid than she already was, and the more people tracking her movements, the more allusive she would become.

Patience was the only ally I allowed myself.

It took many hours of walking up and down and to and from the same sodden streets- lace curtains twitched and heads turned as I passed by the same residences and the same inhabitants for the third, fourth and fifth time that day.

Suspiciously familiar. That was what they were all thinking, feeling, muttering to one another as I moved on. Like a policeman spying on some unknown neighbour, bringing nothing but trouble and scandal.

As time moved by and the soft, orange light flickered into life, tossing shadows against the pavement, the curtains stilled and a glimmer of expectation warmed my body. I stopped looking, I stopped listening, I stopped searching. As long as my feet kept moving, I knew that I would find her.

A sudden flash of gold disappearing around the corner brought me sharply back to my sense, my heart and feet thoughtlessly leaping after it.

'_Why're_ you following me?' Small hands shove me against a cold brick wall with such surprising strength that I can do nothing but stare down at my attacker. Blue eyes, the piercing kind rather than the calming ones, glare back up at me within a face framed extravagantly in the most luxurious of gold.

I allowed just the corners of my mouth twitch into a smile; I had found my girl.

It seemed, however, that my pleasure was neither reciprocated nor permitted- She shoved me again with a snarl, '_Why're_ you following me?'

She was like a wild animal, anxiety making her slight frame tremble with adrenaline, her eyes flick about my face like a restless butterfly and her nails dig, talon-like, into my chest.

I raise an eyebrow, unable to be anything but amused at the ferocity of this little creature. _You do not scare me little girl._

'If you remember,' I murmur, refusing to fight, '_you_ broke into _my_ house. I think you owe me an explanation.'

Her bottom lip disappears between front teeth, betraying her discomfort. Fingers slacken, shoulders drop barely perceptively...

'Oh no you don't!'

I grab hold of her before she is even able to turn. She is easy to hold, being as small as she is, and I do not need to hurt her in order to keep her in her place.

But she will not be subdued easily.

'Let _go_ of me!' She writhes and snarls, twisting this way and that, trying to bite and kick and scratch, anything that might enable her freedom. 'Let _go_!'

I will not.

'Stop this,' I tell her sharply, as though she is merely a child at the peak of a mindless tantrum. And, as easily, as I would a child, I move deftly and pin her arms tightly to her sides, rendering her completely harmless. 'Are you quite finished?'

Chest rising and falling breathlessly from the exertion, she glares up at me once again, tousled hair falling in golden disarray about her flushed face. Then, weary and defeated, her defiant gaze drops.

A sigh deflates her. 'What do you want, Theo?'

'Just to talk.' I ignore the sceptical eyebrow. 'I want to know why you've been avoiding me,'

Blue flashes. 'You _know_ why-'

'_And_,' I cut across her, my hold tightening a fraction, 'I want to know why you did what you did.'

She scowls at the pavement, refusing to be helpful in any way.

'Is there anywhere we can go?' I press more gently. 'We could talk over cake...?'

Her demeanour brightens considerably at the mention of cake; her one true weakness, she never could conceal her love for puddings.

'I guess,' she says tentatively. 'There's a place just a few streets away that'll be open...I guess we could go there?'

I nod in agreement and, satisfied that she wouldn't bolt, I let me hands drop away, releasing her.

* * *

She studies her coffee intently, as if there is some deep truth concealed beneath the surface of the grainy liquid. The cake remains untouched, almost as though she believes that, were she to move, the spell of silence protecting her will be broken.

Although her temper has subsided, I am almost afraid to push her; the fragile tranquillity now existing between us is pleasant and I am reluctant to do anything that might jeopardise it.

I miss her, I realise with a pang. I miss what we had. Even for the brief time it was for, I miss the way we were together.

I have to know what happened; I have to know why she would throw it all away like that.

'Aurelia,'

Her body stiffens as her eyes flick up, nervous, guilty. Her lip has disappeared again and I can see ripples in her coffee. She waits for me to speak, for the question she knows is coming, but the words are stuck in my throat.

None of it matters anymore. Suddenly, I don't care why, I don't _even_ care that she did it! I just... I just want everything to go back to the way it was, back to normal.

'Come back to me,' I blurt out, surprising even myself, let alone Aurelia.

She stares at me as though I have grown a second nose. Then, deciding that she has, most probably, misheard me, 'What?'

Composing myself, 'Come back to me,' I repeat earnestly, leaning a little further across the table. 'I don't care about what happened, it doesn't matter, it was just a blip, the only thing that matters is-'

'Just a _blip_?' she hisses through her teeth. Her eyes are angry. She shouldn't be angry! This doesn't make sense! 'You _think_ that I would do that on a _whim_, do you? You think I go _snooping_ around people's houses for _kicks_?' The shrillness in her voices rises with every word. 'How _dare_ you say that it doesn't matter, Theo! It _does_ matter! A helluva lot!' She makes a contemptuous noise through her nose and throws herself back in her chair, arms folded tightly across her chest, eyebrow arched.

I am confused; this wasn't how it was supposed to go, not at all! _I_ am the one who has been wronged, not her! So why am _I_ the one being made to feel guilty?

She is waiting for me to speak, for an answer to whatever unspoken question she is posing. But I haven't for the life of me any idea what it could be.

Whatever tranquillity had existed was now, most definitely, no longer; a stony silence lingered in the air like a noxious gas, stifling, choking, and the longer it lasted, the more toxic it became.

'What do you _want_ me to say?' I demand finally, the words coming out angrier than I had intended them to. She flinches, eyes returning to her cooling coffee. 'Well?' the more I talk, the more frustrated I become. I cannot stop myself. 'You should be _grateful_ that I am willing to try and sort things out between us! You're _bloody_ lucky we didn't call the police on you! We could have, you know!' She flushes heavily, still carefully contemplating the contents of her mug. 'It is _illegal_, in case you _didn't_ know, to break into people's houses! It's criminal activity, Aurelia!'

That was it. That was the final push, and I regret it the instance the words leave my lips.

'_Fine_.' The chair is brutally shoved back; the scrape of metal on linoleum makes the few other customers turn in their seats to glare at us. We are causing a scene, I realise, feeling the blood in my face rush to the surface.

'Aurelia,'

She looks like she wants to hit me. Hard.

I arrange my feature into what I hope is a calm and collected expression. 'Aurelia, just...just sit down. Please,' I add as her blue eyes narrow. 'Let's just talk about it.'

'But you don't _want_ to talk about it,' comes the biting retort. 'It doesn't _matter_. It's just,' she sneers, 'a _blip._'

'Aurelia, please!'

She shakes her head, gold falling about her face like a gilded waterfall.

"Screw you, Theo.'

I do nothing to stop her as she walks away from me, even though I now that I will never see her again.

I sigh regretfully and pick up her fork. It would be a shame to waste the cake.


End file.
